This document is a report of the restoration and monitoring activities connected with the restoration of Lake Belle View.
Monitoring Report 2014-15
Video contributed by the Upper Sugar River Watershed Association on their efforts to help us eradicate an invasive species in our watershed.
Purple Loosestrife Video
Feature on Lake Belle View's efforts to eradicate carp, as featured in the August 2014 issue of Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine.
WNR Herding Carp Feature
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jim Welsh, (608) 258-9797, jim@nhlt.org
Natural areas that need restoration and young people at risk both benefit from a new partnership between Natural Heritage Land Trust and Operation Fresh Start. The project is thanks, in part, to a recent $38,400 grant from the Madison Community Foundation. The Dane County Partners for Recreation & Conservation (PARC) grant program, the other main funding source, awarded $21,700 to the joint project in May. Project partners will use the funds to make lasting improvements to protected lands in Dane County and provide job skills and a conservation education to low-income youth.
The project will employ Operation Fresh Start (OFS) crews to complete
conservation and facility improvements at five sites where Natural Heritage Land Trust is working to permanently protect natural habitats and wetland features.
OFS has decades of success preparing youth struggling against poverty, school failure and other life-limiting difficulties to become self-sufficient through employment training and education programs. Work on environmental projects is part of the OFS focus on community service.
Starting in the fall and winter of 2012, crews will construct fishing platforms and piers at Black Earth Creek and Lake Belle View in the Village of Belleville, and construct or reconstruct trails at Cross Plains Conservancy Parks and the Westport Drumlin State Natural Area. The program also involves restoration work on various prairie, wetland or savanna habitats at places like Hickory Hill on the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Patrick Marsh, Lake Belle View and Westport Drumlin.
Besides the conservation of cherished local landscapes, says Natural Heritage Land Trust Executive Director, the joint effort will help the public enjoy and understand these exceptional and accessible natural areas. "This project is an important chance for our two organizations to invest, along with funders, in the future of our communities," he adds. "With the support of the Madison Community Foundation and the PARC program, Natural Heritage Land Trust and OFS can give some motivated young people hands-on experience managing natural places, possibly introducing them to careers that involve environmental protection and the out-of-doors -a benefit to all of us and our natural heritage."
The Madison Community Foundation encourages, facilitates and manages long-term philanthropy and, since 1942, has helped people realize their philanthropic goals and support charitable interests anywhere in the world. The community foundation also awards grants throughout Dane County to build communities. Learn more at madisoncommunityfoundation.org.
The County's PARC program provides capital financial assistance for local government or nonprofit outdoor recreation and conservation projects that help generate significant regional benefits.
Natural Heritage Land Trust began 30 years ago when a group of people took responsibility for protecting a stretch of woods along Madison's Lake Mendota. Today the organization permanently protects more than 8,000 acres in Dane County and the surrounding area. Learn more at nhlt.org.
The first complete growing season of the post-construction restoration and mitigation activities of the Lake Belle View Restoration Project is complete. In December of 2011 the Lake Belle View water levels were raised to its final elevation of about 858 and wetland/floodplain forest restoration and mitigation areas were dormant seeded, completing the construction phase of the project. In May of 2012, the dredging activities on the Sugar River side of the new separation berm were completed, the gates of the Belleville Dam were closed and water levels on the Sugar River impoundment rose to its normal elevation of about 858.
A team of consultants hired by the Village (Montgomery Associates, Agrecol Environmental Consulting and Eco-Resource Consulting) also continued to monitor the progress of the restoration efforts, going above and beyond the requirements of the USACE permit special conditions with funding assistance from the Wisconsin DNR Lake Planning Grant. This summary report documents the various restoration and monitoring activities associated with the Lake Belle View Restoration Project.
2012 Belleville Summary Report
Calendar
